A Patriotic Farewell to Alton, Christensen Reunion Day 3, July 4, 2012

 One of my new favorite things is a small town parade.  I hadn't ever been to one until I was an adult, and in my opinion, they're the best kind of parade.  The Alton community invited anyone from our reunion to participate in their Independence Day festivities.  My kids thought it would be fun to dress up and be in the parade.  So, we put together some patriotic costumes for them, and they marched in the parade with a few of their cousins.

What should your sign say Amara?  "I want it to say Happy Parade Day!"

 For spectators, the parade lasted about 3 minutes from start to finish.  The streets were sparsely populated with spectators.  It made me happy that our reunion was in town to support it.  I was near the beginning of the parade route, then I moved to near the end of the parade and watched it again.  Lily kept up with the crowd, but looked a little tired near the end.  Amara and Rebekah lagged a bit behind and ended up riding on one of the floats.  I took video.  As soon as I find it, I'll post it.

 After the parade, we enjoyed a picnic lunch fundraiser and then it was time to bid farewell to the beloved town of Alton.  We were on to Plan C- go spend the night in Hurricane, in hopes of better air quality and possibly better sleeping.  You see, the smoke from the nearby fire was causing respiratory problems for some in our group, and although our accommodations worked for a few, a few others hadn't slept at all since we got there due to lack of beds.

So we were off again, on a new adventure.  Although our destination was our relative's house in Hurricane, we made a couple of side trips along the way.

I had Steve stop at the small town of Orderville so that I could take a few pictures of the town that my ancestors settled.  We drove and found an old building which turned out to be a replica of an old rock schoolhouse.

Then we made our way over to meet the rest of the reunion clan at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes.  What a fun place!  We never did fully meet up with the whole group, but we had fun as a family on the dunes.  Matt and Steve's dad found us to tell us that everyone else had paid to get in and as they were leaving to meet up with everyone, they got stuck in the sand.  About 45 minutes later and after several attempts at digging out and creating more traction, the van had only got deeper into sand.  A good-deed-doer then drove up and offered to try to pull the van out with his sport utility vehicle.  And in a few short minutes, the van was free and clear.  

Steve and Matt tried to show the depth of the ditch van was stuck in.

 After the van was free, Matt and Steve's dad drove off and we drove down the road to another free parking area, and played on those dunes for a bit.  That was REALLY cool and a lot of fun!  It was the perfect weather for a day at the dunes.  It wasn't too hot and there were lots of clouds for shade.

The 3 specs in the middle of the photo are Steve and the girls.

 

All that playing tired us all out, so we headed to Hurricane to our 2nd new reunion home for some dinner and a good night's rest.